Posted 21 October 2023

are food delivery drivers expected to bring food upstairs?

I order food delivery very often via UberEats, Just Eat, Deliveroo etc. I live in a 3rd floor flat with lift. Based on my experience, 9 out of 10 drivers bring the food to my door without raising any questions; 1 of 10 asks to meet you downstairs or lobby. What are the general expectations here? I do tip in cash if it's raining etc and if they bring it up.

London btw.

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22nd Oct 2023
For every difficult delivery there is an easy delivery. Your contract is with the company - not the driver. The driver works for the company - not you. The driver will get both easy and difficult jobs.
I get groceries delivered. I live in a semi. I do not tip. The supermarket pays the driver wages. Ditto any letters/parcels/milk I get delivered.
I don't tip the sewage worker and yet they take my sh1t away.
I don't tip the bin man and yet they take my rubbish away.
I don't tip my NHS workers and yet they look after me,
I don't tip the bus driver and yet they deliver me to my nearest end point.
I don't tip any of the very important backroom staff in offices and yet things get done.
I don't tip the librarian and yet they help me borrow books etc for free(at the point of borrowing)
I don't tip the journalists or news presenters and yet they keep me informed.
I don't tip any hotukdeals workers and yet I get presented with good purchasing deals.

Nobody tips me for the work I do, the help I provide, or services I provide; if I get a thank you I am very happy.
22nd Oct 2023
But do you tip at restaurants? I feel tipping makes people happy if they provide a good service. Each to their own I guess.
21st Oct 2023
If they don't bring it to your door, then it hasn't been delivered.
21st Oct 2023
As a postie, we love it when people actually get off their backside and come down to meet you rather than buzz you in and expect you to bring it up 3 flights of stairs and I would expect this is the same for any delivery company. Like the other comment, if you leave a note about a tip, I reckon they would be fine with coming up.
21st Oct 2023
Out of decency I would get them to phone when they arrive and go down and meet them at the entrance.

However there are still loads of folks who are really lazy these days and just expect to live like they still lived with mummy pampering them.
21st Oct 2023
next time write in comments can you deliver to door and there us £1 tip they will all deliver to your door then
21st Oct 2023
You tend to pay for delivery so would expect them to bring it to your door , would we expect for an Amazon or any other courier to buzz on the intercom and tell us to collect our parcel from downstairs ? (edited)
22nd Oct 2023
They get paid to deliver in a vehicle its not supposed to be a kitchen to mouth service, do you expect a taxi driver to pick you up from the third floor aswell.
21st Oct 2023
OP says:

"I do tip in cash if it's raining etc and if they bring it up"

So it would have to be raining as well for them to get a tip?

My mate does deliveries and I tag along with him occasionally. Whenever he delivers to any apartment complex I'd say every customer will be at the main entrance gate to collect
22nd Oct 2023
The delivery contract specifies an address which happens to be upstairs in a building. It is not a surprise, especially in a city, and delivery drivers should be ready for it.

That being said, how it is handled is left to the recipient. I walk down whenever possible and if I am not able to, I bump up the tip and offer a cold can of Coke.
22nd Oct 2023
That coke had better be diet or zero.
22nd Oct 2023
because the drivers have so many deliveries, they can't afford to wait for the lift and go up multiple floors while food is getting cold for other customers. if they didn't have a lot to deliver, then they may decide to go up, but if they have lots to deliver, they will want to nip round quickly before the food goes cold!

if i lived on the 3rd floor i wouldn't mind coming down to meet the driver. if everyone comes and meet the driver downstairs, it will make delivery faster and cheaper.

and of course, if they came on a push bike, which a lot of delivery drivers do, then locking the bike up to go up 3 floors, waiting for the lift in the meantime, both up and down, would also take time to find a suitable place to lock their bike up, and more than likely it will be nicked, along with other customers' food by the time they make it back to their bike! (edited)
Author
22nd Oct 2023
what you said makes no sense.

if they have "too many" deliveries then it's either a problem of the platform that they shouldn't schedule so many, or the driver simply earns more.

I don't mind coming down to meet the driver; it has nothing to do with the original question. The question is: is it the driver's courtesy if they bring it up? or they are expected to do so (hence if you come down it's your courtesy).
22nd Oct 2023
I live in a house.
The quality of deliveries (parcels as well as food) is poor as it is.
I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I lived in a high rise.
22nd Oct 2023
I live in a house.
So do we and the amount of delivery drivers that randomly turn up at our front door in the evening holding out takeaway orders when we never ordered food runs into double figures annually.

During summer 2022, a carrier bag containing a large bottle of expensive vodka and bottle of lemonade was left on our back garden wall by a delivery rider/driver on behalf of Co-op. I found it when we got home, then phoned the local store the following morning to provide opportunity to pick them up, but they never did so I donated to my neighbour. I'm guessing they didn't reclaim the delivery due to health and safety considerations. (edited)
22nd Oct 2023
I do uber occasionally and no, we dont bring it upstairs. To put it frankly we are not insured. Eg if the lift breaks down,

if you give the terms and conditions a read it will say consierge area only.
23rd Oct 2023
Concierge? In the UK?
21st Oct 2023
Those new builds lift take a fortnight. I could go upto 20 story building in that time. So if you have one of those, i would help out the delivery person.
22nd Oct 2023
Delivery driver would still have to spend the same amount of time waiting for you as they would delivering to the door
23rd Oct 2023
My disabled friend lives on the 12th floor thankfully there are lifts but I know its a real struggle for him with his mobility and could take him 10-15mins compared to 5 minutes for a more abled person.
2 m ago
First of all Delivery Drivers do not have an signed agreement directly to the customer, they are self-employed independent workers, they have agreement with the platform like (deliveroo, ubereats etc) , they do not even have an contract with the restaurants either.
They get paid by the distance and duration of the service. And the payment calculation are made according to the Google maps . It's clearly at the building number.